Dear Friends of SJS,Please join us this Friday, Oct. 13th for the SJS Annual Lecture:Restoring the Circle of Life in this Region: Indigenous Perspectives for Social and Ecological Justicea talk by Paul Cheoketen WagnerW̱SÁNEĆ activist Paul Cheoketen Wagner discusses the movement for social and ecological justice in the Salish Sea bioregion. He draws from cultural work as a Coast Salish story-teller and his community organizing work encouraging the transition to the post- petroleum economy. 7 p.m.Hickman Building Room 105Free and open to the public

This lecture coincides with the opening of the Common Vision, Common Action conference, taking place from October 13-15 at the University of Victoria. To register for the weekend conference, visit:www.CommonAction.ca.

This event is accessible to people with diverse abilities and is taking place on the territory of the Lekwungen and W̱SÁNEĆ peoples.

EXHIBITION

A new exhibit in downtown Victoria pays homage to the art and lives of people who have died in the overdose crisis.

“In talking to people who’ve lost family, friends and to frontline workers, it became clear there is a lack of place to grieve,” said Marion Selfridge, one of the co-ordinators of the heART space pop-up art gallery on Fort Street.

Selfridge, a former youth outreach worker and doctoral student, said the project came together with the help of street-involved youth, frontline workers and others affected by the crisis, which has killed more than 300 people on Vancouver Island this year and last.

“Art and culture gives us an opportunity to be with our grief,” said Selfridge.

“It’s really important to offer space, physical space, for people to let down the work and stigma, to create and observe.”

Selfridge said the curated art show is funded in part through the Centre for Addictions Research B.C. A call for submissions has yielded an interesting mix of sculpture and two-dimensional artworks, she said.

Victoria muralist Kay Gallivan transformed an awning from the previous tenant, Alpine Market, into an artwork for the temporary gallery.

Selfridge said the graffiti-style mural uses peaceful imagery of camas, lavender and nature, “to ground us in the space and land.”

The exhibit opens on Tuesday with an evening reception and will host workshops and events throughout the month, including a spoken word open mic on Oct. 26 as well as an acoustic song circle and overdose-prevention and naloxone training.

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Town Hall Meeting - Let's Ban the Bag!

*WE NEED YOU!* If you care about the environment, this is one event you need to attend! The City of Victoria is so close to banning single-use plastic bags in Victoria but they need to hear from you! This is such a crucial moment in our fight to eliminate single-use plastics.You can come in-person to show your support just by being there and you can also step-up to the mic with a message for City Councilors as simple as, "I support a ban on single-use plastic bags!"

You are invited to the opening of the exhibition Disobedient Women: Defiance, Resistance and Creativity Past and Present. This exhibitonincludes a selection of stories, images, quilts, puppets, installations, collages, videos and many other types of artworks by and about women from Vancouver Island and beyond. It captures the energy and imagination, spirit and courage, of women who respond overtly or covertly to patriarchal and colonial authority and power and gender injustices.

***********************************************************************Oct. 19: Friends of Cuba Social Justice Film Night7pmThursday, Oct. 192994 Douglas in the BCGEU hall. With this event we will be paying our tribute to Che Guevara.​

Professional Women and the Justice System Panel Discussion, St Ann’s Academy

Wednesday, October 25, 2017 – 7.00pm – 8.30pm

The second Women in Leadership Critical Conversations panel discussion of our current series will take place October 25th at St. Ann’s Academy. The Panel is sponsored by the Society of Friends of St Ann’s Academy (SFSAA), and the Faculty of Education, University of Victoria. Drawing from feedback from the sold-out Women in Leadership Conference held in October, 2016, it was apparent that the community needs to continue the conversations of gender justice and change.

Eva Silden, an Instructor and former Chair of the Criminal Justice Department at Camosun College will Chair the panel discussion on real and perceived gender bias and progressive change. “Most of us, who work in and study the justice system, recognize that it is largely a system built by and for men. It is only within the last 40 years or so that women have begun to work in policing, law, corrections in any perceptible numbers. As such, it should not come as a surprise that women working in the justice system continue to face inequalities and discrimination. A key starting point for exploring some of these issues is to come from a place of curiosity. I hope this conversation with our panel members and audience will help to shed some light and learning on these issues”.

Lifecycles Project Society will provide light refreshments made from fresh produce. Admission to the panel discussion is by donation.

To register, for general enquiries or more information about the series, write to Satty Virdi, Executive Director at
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We hope you can join CCPA-BC director Seth Klein, associate director Shannon Daub and resource analyst Ben Parfitt for a special 20th anniversary fundraising event in Victoria on Thursday, October 26.

Help celebrate and support the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives' vital work in BC, and get their take on openings for progressive change in relation to:

The political moment in BC,

The rise of the far right, and

The climate challenge.

Shannon, Seth and Ben will also reflect on the CCPA’s role and highlight their plans to shine a critical light on public policy. There will be refreshments served after the talk and a chance to connect with other members of the CCPA community.

Please forward this email to your networks, and share the event page and attached image on social media. If you have any questions, please contact our supporter engagement specialist, Leo Yu, at 604-801-5121 ext. 225 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Colombian National Police fired on a gathering of rural families in themunicipality of Tumaco, Nariño in Colombia on October 5, 2017. They killedbetween eight and sixteen persons and wounded more than 50. Peasantfarmers want to participate in the voluntary eradication of illicit cropsper the peace agreement ending Colombia's civil war. They are demandingthat the government fulfill its commitments on this point.

On Sunday, October 8, 2017, the National Police attacked an internationaldelegation sent to investigate the massacre. Representatives of the UnitedNations and the Organization of American States, as well as a Colombianjournalist, were repelled by the police firing bullets in the air and bystun grenades when they tried to approach the area where the massacre tookplace. This is an example of the policy the Trump administration ispushing in Colombia. White House and State Department officials have madeseveral statements recently saying they will not support voluntaryeradication programs, calling instead for Colombia to focus on forced, andtherefore violent, eradication. The result? More dead Colombian farmersand their families....

•Demand that Colombia's government end the violence and fulfillcommitments to crop substitution programs in Tumaco

•Demand that the White House support voluntary eradication and stopencouraging violence against rural Colombians

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

Massacre in Tumaco - US pushes for more repression

by James Jordan

The Colombian National Police massacred between 8 and 16 persons, woundingmore than 50, in the municipality of Tumaco, Nariño on Thursday afternoon,October 5, 2017. The attack was directed against protesting coca growingfamilies demanding the government fulfill its commitments to voluntaryeradication programs.

Additionally, on Sunday, October 8, 2017, the National Police attacked aninternational team sent to investigate the massacre. The police used teargas and stun grenades to disperse representatives from the United Nations,the Organization of American States, and a journalist from the Colombianweekly, Semana. The National Police and Colombia's military are both underthe direction of the Ministry of Defense.

Initially, the Colombian government claimed that the massacre was theresult of an attack by dissident insurgents who oppose accords between theColombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia -People's Army (FARC-EP). However, eyewitnesses from the community concurthat the violence was perpetrated by the police. Since the implementationof the accords, Tumaco has been the site of several assassinations oflocal leaders and attacks against protesters by the armed forces andparamilitaries.

Colombian peace accords were implemented as the law of the land in lateNovember 2016. They include provisions for crop substitution andinfrastructure development to create a viable alternative to illicitcrops. Under the National Comprehensive Program for Illicit CropSubstitution, the Colombian government has signed 105,000 cropsubstitution pacts with rural families and it is estimated that its goalof crop substitution programs for 50,000 hectares will be reached by theend of the year. The government has also forcibly eradicated another50,000 hectares during the same period, often in the same areas where ithas signed substitution agreements.

Even when substitution pacts have been signed, they have been beset withdelays in payments and infrastructure and road improvements. Some peasantfamilies complain that they must travel through areas of paramilitaryactivity to access benefits. Another difficulty has been that somecommunities requesting to participate in the voluntary program have beenignored and subjected to forced eradication.

The Trump administration is pressuring Colombia to abandon the voluntaryprogram in favor of forced eradication which frequently results in stateviolence. The White House is also urging Colombia to return to aerialfumigation of illicit crops with Monsanto’s RoundUp Ultra. Vice PresidentMike Pence, Ambassador to Colombia Kevin Whitaker, and William Brownfield,the Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of International Narcoticsand Law Enforcement Affairs, have all declared that the US will notsupport voluntary eradication programs because they are the result ofaccords signed between the Colombian government and the FARC-EP. The factdoes not seem to matter that these accords have brought an end to a52-year civil war that left more than 220,000 persons dead; 92,000disappeared; and 6 million rural families displaced. Nor does it matterthat the FARC-EP no longer exists and former insurgents have disarmed. Thenew FARC, the Common Alternative Revolutionary Force, is a legal,nonviolent, and civilian political party that is integrated into civilsociety.

The White House justifies their position by repeating the myth that thenow defunct FARC-EP have been and continue to be major narcoticstraffickers. However, both Colombian and US government studies havedebunked this assertion. It is generally recognized that the FARC-EP hadlevied a tax on narco-traffickers, but had not been major producers ormerchants of narcotics. A 2001 Colombian government study found right wingparamilitaries to be responsible for more than 40% of the cocaine tradeand the FARC-EP for no more than 2.5%.

Donnie Marshall, the head of the Drug Enforcement Agency under Pres.George W. Bush has gone on record saying, “…there is no evidence that anyFARC or ELN units have established international transportation, wholesaledistribution or drug money-laundering networks in the United States orEurope.”

According to Rafael Suarez, who was a military advisor to the Uribeadministration, “if you reduce the FARC to just a drug cartel, you makethe possibility of negotiating a political settlement more difficult.” Ofcourse, if the goal is not peace, but the consolidation of stolen lands,then the strategy works well of branding the FARC-EP as major drugtraffickers and carrying out a “War on Drugs” that is really a War ofDisplacement and a War against Farmers.

On the other hand, Colombia’s former president Álvaro Uribe was on aDefense Intelligence Agency list in 1991 as one of Colombia's topnarco-traffickers. His administration received billions of dollars in USfunding via Plan Colombia.

William Brownfield first came to the State Department in 1979, under theCarter Administration. He was promoted to his current position as anAssistant Secretary of State under Pres. Barak Obama and continues in thejob under the Trump administration. Before that, he had served asAmbassador to Colombia during the Uribe administration, and as Ambassadorto Chile and to Venezuela. He has had assignments with the StateDepartment and the Pentagon's Southern Command in El Salvador, Argentina,Panama, and Honduras. He is accused of helping cover up an incident inwhich four Honduran community members, including two pregnant women, werekilled with shots fired from a State Department helicopter in 2012. He hasannounced his imminent retirement.

But given his long background as a promotor of the US Empire, hispronouncements against voluntary eradication programs in Colombia arechilling. On August 2, 2017, Brownfield reported that, "The United Statesis not currently supporting the Colombian government's voluntaryeradication and crop substitution program because the FARC is involved....In 2016, 675 attempted eradication operations were cancelled in the fielddue to restrictive rules of engagement that prevented security forces fromengaging protestors."

We of the Alliance for Global Justice are intimately familiar withcircumstances facing rural Colombian families who are forced to cultivateillicit crops such as coca, marijuana, and poppies. We have a closerelationship with FENSUAGRO, Colombia's federation of agricultural workersand peasant farmers unions. We have traveled extensively with FENSUAGRO onbarely passable roads to villages where families are trying to raise andsell legal crops, especially in coffee growing areas. They do so againstincredible odds. We have traveled roads that have required us to stopevery 15 to 20 minutes to make repairs just so we could keep going. Wehave trampled in the rainy season to villages like Maracaibo, Tolima,where we were laboring through paths so muddy that we were covered up toand past our knees. We have seen again and again rural villages that lackschools and teachers (or that have schools with virtually no supplies),health services, electricity, or any viable way to get crops to markets.In such cases, families turn to the cultivation of illicit crops becausenarcotraffickers are the only economic interests who will travel to thesevillages to make purchases.

For the United States government to demand forced eradication overvoluntary programs constitutes nothing less than a cynical call for bloodyrepression of Colombian farming families. The Trump administration doesnot want peace in Colombia. It wants more death and displacement so thataccess to natural resources is cleared for transnational corporations. Itwants Colombia to exist first and foremost as an outpost of Empire and athreat to the stability of the entire region. We who love peace andjustice want something very different. We know that a Colombia at peaceand rooted in justice would be a major step towards peace, justice, andliberation from Empire throughout Latin America and, indeed, the world.

Margo MatwychukDirectorSocial Justice Studies ProgramUniversity of Victoriaweb.uvic.ca/socialjustice/@UVicSJS on TwitterUVicSJS on FacebookUVicSJS on YouTubeWe acknowledge and respect the Songhees, Esquimalt and WSÁNEĆ peoples on whose traditional territory the university stands and whose relationships with the land continue to this day.

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